Andrew Rotherham offers Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, five philanthropy lessons in his column School of Thought in Time Magazine. Last week, Zuckerberg agreed to donate $100 million to improve the long-troubled public schools in Newark, NJ.

In Indiana, state legislators learned Wednesday that, in 2009, schools got paid for 16,315 students no longer in attendance.

In the first year of DC public school’s IMPACT system, an effectiveness assessment system for school-based personnel, 662 teachers, or 16 percent of the District’s teaching force, were rated highly effective. –The Washington Post

Ninety seven percent of American schools and nearly all public libraries have Internet access, but nearly 80 percent of E-Rate recipients have reported they need faster connections, because several still have dial-up. –Federal Communications Commission

Today’s NBC News Education Nation coverage included a segment on the more than one million kids that drop out of high school each year, Tom Brokaw interviewing US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and a piece on how American students are falling behind their international peers.

On September 23, the Federal Communications Commission approved an overhaul of the $2.25 billion E-Rate program—which offers discounted telephone and internet services for eligible schools and public libraries—to give schools more options for faster internet connection and service, allow for community internet service, and begin pilot programs for mobile learning devices, like digital textbooks. According to the New York Times, the program mostly serves schools in poor and rural communities.

The St. Louis Dispatch writes about the inaugural class of the Ozarks Teacher Corps, a group of southwest Missouri teachers in training who receive $4,000 annual scholarships in exchange for a three-year commitment to work in rural school districts after graduation.

The director of the Public Education Research Institute at Queens University of Charlotte describes how reducing dropouts would provide an economic stimulus in an op-ed in the Charlotte Observer.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he wants to use new methods to evaluate and pay the state’s public school teachers, according to the Associated Press.

Below are a few more videos from today’s NBC News Education Nation coverage including a “Morning Joe” segment on the high school dropout crises with Colin and Alma Powell, an interview with Rep. George Miller on the future of No Child Left Behind, and an explanation of the how the Education Nation Scorecard tool works by Director of Education at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Vicki Phillips.

Last week, U.S. Representative Judy Chu (D-CA) introduced the Linked Learning Pathways Affording College and Career Success Act, which would combine rigorous college preparation with workplace experience in an effort to improve student engagement, academic achievement, and success after high school. To learn more about the bill, click here.

Ace Parsi, policy and advocacy assistant at the Alliance for Excellent Education, has been working on this issue and we recently interviewed him to learn more about the Linked Learning effort. Do you have a question about the initiative? Simply, type it in the comments section below and Ace will do his best to respond.

Edutopia outlines seven steps to building school-to-industry partnerships.

Watch video from WBIR-TV in Knoxville, TN on the high school dropout crises:

This week, hundreds of education technology entrepreneurs are gathering in Boston, to “Reflect and Renew” on the “Retooling of the New Education Marketplace”– the theme for this year’s EdNET Conference. This theme is quite fitting, given the current economic situation we are facing as a nation, as an industry, and as individuals.

What will define this country in the years to come is how we choose to “Retool,” the way we have operated in the past; and “Re-Prioritize” our goals moving forward.

Yesterday, NBC kicked-off Education Nation, a nationally broadcast, in-depth conversation about improving education in America. According to the web site, the goal of the program is “to engage the public, through thoughtful dialogue, in pursuit of the shared goal of providing every American with an opportunity to pursue the best education in the world”

At the station’s New York City headquarters, Rockefeller Plaza will be transformed into a “Learning Plaza” where the public can “explore America’s educational ecosystem” and learn more about how their local schools are performing. NBC will also be highlighting education stories across their various programs including on “Nightly News”, the “Today” show, “Meet the Press”, etc.