Did you know there were thousands of African American cowboys? That the first person to hold a U.S. patent was an African American inventor In 1821? 

Readbrightly.com reminds us that African Americans have made countless contributions to our society that have gone unrecognized. But thanks to recent picture books we can learn more about some of them--and throughout the year, not just in February.

Click here for the list of 19 children's books. They include:

Fancy Party Gowns: The Story of Fashion Designer Ann Cole Lowe by

Deborah Blumenthal. Jaqueline Kennedy's wedding dress was the work of this little-known designer.

Before There Was Mozart: The Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George by Lesa Cline-Ransome. This violinist was considered the most talented musician in France during the 1700s.

Take a Picture of Me, James VanDerZee by Andrea Loney. This talented photographer is said to have taken 75,000 pictures in his time; many were later displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

And the vast majority of children's books--73.3%--depict white characters. Statistics about diversity in children's books are shared by high school teacher Julie Kwon Jee in a blog post for Heinemann publishing. It's part of a plea for including books that reflect students' lives and  build empathy for characters from other cultures--or even other time periods.

The thought-provoking numbers are from a study conducted by the Cooperative

Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And, as Jee points out, they're "a vivid reminder of what is

not seen in the books our children and, in turn, our students read." For example:

Why does Jee think being more inclusive is important? "The literature we read needs to be a bridge, not a barrier, to reality."    Read more.

From starting the day with a personal greeting to giving children lots of opportunities to work with partners, a 2016 online article from  We Are Teachers runs down almost two dozen ways to support students' social skills. Each includes an illustration from a real classroom or of materials such as the poster shown at right. What's more, each tip comes with a link to more information. For example, suggestion #10 is "Practice lots of role-play" and readers can click on a link to another online article on the 10 key benefits of role play for children.

While many of the "simple ways to integrate social-emotional learning throughout the school day" may be familiar to you, one of the book lists or recommendations may inspire a new strategy.  Read more.

Kindergarten classes are getting more academic. New research says the kids are all right.

This story on the education news website Chalkbeat was widely shared, including by the ASCD in its e-newsletter distributed to more than 100,000 school leaders. The Chalkbeat piece reports on a study recently published in the American Educational Research Journal that used data from 20,000 kindergarteners in the 2010-11 school year, and concludes "concerns about academic rigor in the early grades may be overblown." 

The problem: The study "has severe limitations and is based on so many questionable assumptions that no meaningful conclusion can be drawn from it," according to a "rapid response"rebuttal  from advocacy group Defending the Early Years. The objections are too detailed and extensive to repeat here, but include the fact that there was no follow-up after the kindergarten year and that findings were based on questionable standardized tests. 

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