Star pupils

This Dallas elementary school is No. 1 in Texas, says U.S. News & World Report

One Dallas school moves to the head of the class.

Photo by Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images

A Dallas school has earned top honors in Texas in U.S. News & World Report’s first-ever ranking of the state's best elementary schools.

Dallas ISD’s William B. Travis Academy/Vanguard for the Academically Talented and Gifted holds the No. 1 spot among 4,446 elementary schools in Texas. It ranks first among Texas elementary schools for reading proficiency and ties for first in the math proficiency category, U.S. News says.

One other Dallas ISD school, Sudie L. Williams Talented and Gifted Academy, also made the top 10, coming in at No. 6.

Just two other local elementary schools came close: Old Union Elementary School (No. 3) and Carroll Elementary School (No. 4). Both are in the Southlake Carroll district.

William B. Travis enrolls students in the fourth through eighth grades, meaning it’s both an elementary school and a middle school. The Vanguard component is a magnet school for fourth- and fifth-graders, and the academy component is a magnet school sixth-, seventh, and eighth-graders. Total enrollment is 521.

The institution “is a premier destination for children and families across the city — a hub for accelerated education, community spirit, and excellence,” according to the school's website. Its academic offerings include language arts, foreign languages, math, science, social studies, humanities, computer science, and fine arts.

For the brand-new list, U.S. News ranked schools according to performance on state-required tests, graduation rates, and high school preparedness. They note that 98 percent of Travis students scored at or above the proficient level for math, and 98 percent scored at or above that level for reading.

Among the interesting stats about Travis, they note:

The school’s minority student enrollment is 46 percent.
The student population is made up of 56 percent female students and 44 percent male students.
The school enrolls 17 percent economically disadvantaged students.
With 31 equivalent full-time teachers, the student-teacher ratio is 17:1, which is actually below that of the district.

At Sudie L. Williams, the student population is 327 in grades four through seven, U.S. News reports. "At Sudie L Williams Talented and Gifted Academy, 95 percent of students scored at or above the proficient level for math, and 87 percent scored at or above that level for reading," they say.

The school’s minority student enrollment is 54 percent; student population is 46 percent female and 54 male; 36 percent of the students are classified as economically disadvantaged; and with 20 equivalent full-time teachers, the student-teacher ratio is 16:1, the report says.

Elsewhere in Texas
Unlike its annual list of the country’s best high schools, the publication didn’t come up with a national ranking of elementary schools. Rather, it published a ranking for each state. Their 10 best elementary schools in Texas are:

William B. Travis Academy/Vanguard for the Academically Talented and Gifted, Dallas ISD.
Windsor Park G/T Elementary School, Corpus Christi ISD.
Old Union Elementary School, Carroll ISD.
Carroll Elementary School, Carroll ISD.
Hudson Elementary School, Longview ISD.
Sudie L. Williams Talented and Gifted Academy, Dallas ISD.
Canyon Creek Elementary School, Round Rock ISD.
Carver Center, Midland ISD.
Cactus Ranch Elementary School, Round Rock ISD.
Creekside Forest Elementary School, Tomball ISD.

rankings education lists

Closure news

Neiman Marcus flagship store in downtown Dallas to close for good

Neiman Marcus

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The iconic downtown Dallas location of luxury department store Neiman Marcus, at 1618 Main St., will close for good, the company says.

In a statement, parent company Saks Global said it planned to close the store on September 30, 2026 and focus on its NorthPark Center location in Dallas.

"As we continue to take steps to secure a strong future for Neiman Marcus, our optimized store footprint is aimed at aligning our go-forward presence with customer demand and preferences. After a thorough evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to close the Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas store on September 30, 2026, and concentrate our resources where our customers prefer to shop.

"Dallas remains an incredibly important market for the Neiman Marcus brand, and our customers in the city and across the suburbs consistently choose to shop at our NorthPark location. We are committed to serving our loyal Dallas customers at NorthPark, where we plan to infuse elements celebrating the Downtown store’s rich history," the statement read.

The store has been open since 1914 and served as a bedrock for downtown Dallas.

The definitive closure announcement, first reported by The Dallas Morning News, ends a months-long saga of will-they-won't-they and back-and-forth with the city of Dallas. There have been many efforts to keep the longtime store open.

To recap: In mid-February 2025, Saks Global said they were closing the 100-year-old store after a dispute with the landlord. City leaders rallied to keep it open. It worked, sort of: a landlord who owned a piece of land on which the iconic store resides agreed to donate it to the city of Dallas, so that there would be no obstacles for the store's continued operation.

But then in late February 2025, Saks Global reiterated that the Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas store would definitely close on March 31, 2025. More rallying happened.

In late March 2025, days before it was to have closed, Saks Global announced the store would remain open through the 2025 holiday season while it explored a reimagination of the location in collaboration with the City of Dallas.

In January 2026, Saks Global filed for bankruptcy, leaving the fate of all stores unclear. The more than $2 billion in debt that Saks Global amassed to acquire Neiman Marcus in 2024 helped push the company into bankruptcy court, they said. As part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, Saks Global has secured about $1.75 billion in financing to keep the company afloat and its stores open.

In announcing the bankruptcy, Saks Global said it was evaluating its store lineup “to invest resources where it has the greatest long-term potential. This approach reflects an effort to focus the business in areas where [our] luxury retail brands are best positioned for sustainable growth.”

Saks Global announced that the Neiman Marcus store at The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano would close in January 2027 after 25 years. According to Saks Global, there are no plans to replace or relocate the store.

The closures of Downtown and Willow Bend leave Neiman Marcus with two DFW-area locations: NorthPark Center, and the Shops at Clearfork in Fort Worth.

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Teresa Gubbins and John Egan contributed to this story.

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