Summary:
Patrick County Public Schools in rural southwest Virginia contains just one middle-level school — Hardin Reynolds Memorial School in Critz, VA — which serves grades 4 through 7 with a total enrollment of 203 students. The district itself is a top performer, ranked 10th out of 131 Virginia districts with a 5-star rating.
Hardin Reynolds Memorial School is a high-poverty school, with 98.52% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, yet chronic absenteeism is only 9.5% — well below the state average of 14.8% and even below the district's 10.1%. The school's biggest bright spots are 4th grade reading at 87.76% proficiency (about 14 points above the state) and 7th grade math at 73.33% (about 22 points above the state average of 51.11%). However, the school struggles in 5th and 6th grade math, where proficiency drops to 59.26% and 55.32% respectively, and in 5th grade science at 61.11%. This math slide from 4th to 6th grade represents a 22-point decline, far steeper than the district's 5-point decline over the same grades.
The school's state ranking has slipped considerably over the past two years, from #49 of 417 in 2023–2024 to #192 of 416 in 2025–2026. While the school beats the state average in 7 of 11 tested subjects, it trails its own district — a top-10 Virginia district — in 10 of 11 tests. Early-grade reading is a strength, but by 7th grade the school falls 9 points below the district in reading. With only 203 students, small cohorts make scores swing sharply from year to year, so parents should focus on multi-year trends rather than any single year's results.
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