Teachers: Why we need Common Core

• Five teachers of the year%3A High standards push students to better performance
• The journey hasn't been easy for teachers%2C who needed to learn new strategies
• But ditching the standards now would be a setback for Arizona

As Teachers of the Year in Arizona, we believe all of our students deserve the chance to create a life for themselves and their families in which they can be happy and healthy.

To make sure our students are on the path toward accomplishing their dreams, there must be a set of high expectations for what our students should know and be able to do. Arizona's College and Career Ready Standards do just that, which is why we strongly support them and their continued implementation in our schools.

For the past four years, teachers across Arizona have worked in classrooms to determine the best path to meet these more challenging standards and have worked alongside colleagues, parents, school boards and students to create a learning environment that allows for a more comprehensive understanding of concepts for each grade level.

Teachers have challenged students to go from simple calculations to true problem solving, which can be applied to the real world. Teachers have supported students in creating arguments based on evidence from their readings, allowing them to think more critically about the world around them.

We have seen tremendous growth in the way our students think of themselves and the world around them. Arizona's academic standards have challenged students to explore learning in a new way.

The positive impact of these standards can be seen in Arizona classrooms every day.

Before the implementation of the standards, teachers often saw students in reading intervention groups move through the early elementary grades without being challenged to tackle complex assignments. Now these students have the chance to not only build foundational skills but also learn strategies to support their understanding. More difficult reading is presented in a gradual manner, slowly growing in complexity as their skills grow.

Other teachers have seen high-school students begin to analyze reading assignments more deeply than they ever have before, citing evidence for their ideas and opinions. We have also noticed that student writing has improved significantly since the implementation of the standards.

Please don't misunderstand us. This journey has not been easy. For many of us, it has been among the hardest things we have ever done. But so are most things really worth doing.

For too long we have allowed Arizona education to sit on the sidelines of priorities for our state. However, for the past four years Arizona teachers and students have decided that the only acceptable path for our future is one in which all students are challenged to think critically about the topics they learn in a classroom.

Even with the improvements we have seen in student performance, we face the possibility these standards will be overturned, and we will be forced to revert to the old academic standards adopted in 2008. Should this happen, it would not only undermine all of the resources spent and positive work done by educators throughout the state, but it would be a huge step backward at a time when Arizona simply cannot afford to do so.

All students deserve the opportunity to succeed. They shouldn't be caught in the middle of this political debate.

We believe that Arizona's College and Career Ready Standards are the key to students' academic achievement. Please continue to support Arizona's teachers in this difficult — yet crucial — journey to ensure that every one of Arizona's children have the opportunity to reach the American Dream.

Kristie Martorelli of the Dysart Unified School District was the 2012 AEF Arizona Teacher of the Year. This essay was written in conjunction with the four other most recent Teachers of the Year: JD Bowman and Nancie Lindblom of Mesa Public Schools, Beth Maloney of Dysart, and Amanda McAdams of the Glendale Union High School District.