Brookings Today, 1/29/15

A roundup of some of the content published today at Brookings.

• Tracking and the Common Core. Tom Loveless looks at what’s happening in a school district near San Francisco, where controversial changes to the middle school math program are linked in the minds of many to the Common Core State Standards.
• Is college a risky investment? David Wessel comments on new data that show that investing in a four-year college degree deserves scrutiny.
• Critique of Obama’s Alaska energy policy. Charles Ebinger and Heather Greenley criticize President Obama’s decision to give the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) wilderness status, saying that it “represents the death knell of a coherent national petroleum policy.”
• Integrating religious engagement into diplomacy. Peter Mandaville and Sara Silvestri review the challenges and opportunities of religious engagement with foreign policy.
• Free community college as a new norm? Richard Reeves asks whether making community college free, guaranteeing a K-14 education for all, could be a “norm-shifting policy.”
• Israel and the changing Middle East. Itamar Rabinovich explores Israel’s identity, place, and role in the region.
• Overhaul Medicaid. Stuart Butler says, at 50 years old, it’s time to give Medicaid a hard look and “some basic rethinking.”