What Is FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) Certification?

What FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) Certification Actually Is

FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) is short for the Florida Teacher Certification Examination: Middle Grades English 5-9, exam code 014. It's a subject area examination governed by the Florida Department of Education and developed and administered by Pearson Evaluation Systems, often referred to as NES. The test is delivered by computer, both at approved Florida testing centers and at sites nationwide, which means candidates who move out of state before finishing their certification requirements can still sit for it.

This exam exists to verify that a candidate has the content knowledge and pedagogical understanding needed to teach English/Language Arts to students in grades 5 through 9. If you're pursuing Florida teacher certification in this subject and grade band, passing FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) is a required step, alongside any coursework, degree, and general knowledge requirements your certification pathway demands. For a full breakdown of eligibility rules, see the FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) requirements guide.

Exam Structure: Two Sections, Two Score Reports

Unlike a single continuous test, FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) is split into two sections that are administered, scored, and reported independently:

• Multiple-choice section: approximately 60 questions, 1 hour and 30 minutes
• Written performance section: one extended response, 1 hour

Time cannot be transferred between sections. If you finish the multiple-choice section early, that leftover time doesn't carry over to the writing task, and once you complete a section you cannot go back into it. Candidates can choose to take both sections in the same appointment or schedule them separately - a flexibility that has been in place since February 28, 2023. This matters for planning: if you fail only one section, you retake just that section rather than the entire exam.

The Written Performance Task in Detail

The written performance section was redesigned effective January 2024. Candidates are given a middle-grades student's argumentative essay along with a B.E.S.T.-aligned learning objective and a rubric. The task is to evaluate the student's writing against that objective and rubric, then provide meaningful feedback and a course of action for instruction. Two raters score the response holistically, looking at:

• Completion of the task as assigned
• Application of content knowledge
• Support for claims and recommendations

Responses should target 300 to 500 words, with a hard cap of 1,500 words. No reference materials are provided during the test, so familiarity with B.E.S.T. standards language and rubric structure needs to come from your preparation, not from materials handed to you at the testing center.

The Six Domains You're Actually Tested On

The multiple-choice section draws from six competency domains, revised by the State Board of Education in March 2022. Understanding their relative weight is the single most useful thing you can do before building a study plan.

Together, Domains 3 and 4 account for nearly half of the multiple-choice questions. If your study time is limited, this is where the bulk of it should go. A full walkthrough of every skill within each domain is available in the FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) exam domains guide.

Registration, Fees, and Retake Mechanics

Registering for FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) involves a fee structure tied to how you schedule the two sections:

• $150 to take both sections in one registration
• $75 to take a single section on its own
• Retakes are charged at the same $75 per-section rate

If you fail one section, you only pay to retake that section - you don't need to repurchase the whole exam. There is a mandatory 31-calendar-day wait between attempts on the same section, though there's no cap on how many times you can retake it. Once you pass a section, you cannot attempt it again for three years, which matters if you're weighing whether to retake a passed section to try for a higher score (you generally can't). Score verification, if you want your results manually rechecked, costs $75, and score reports are typically released within four weeks of your test date. For the complete fee breakdown, see the FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) certification cost guide, and for scheduling windows, check the FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) exam dates page.

Who Needs This Certification and Why

Passing FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) is required for candidates seeking Florida certification to teach English/Language Arts to students in grades 5 through 9. This typically includes:

• Middle school English/Language Arts teachers in Florida public schools
• Candidates completing alternative certification pathways who need subject area verification
• Teachers transferring certification areas who need to add middle grades English to their credential

Because middle school hiring in Florida is organized around subject-area certification, districts specifically look for candidates who hold or are actively pursuing the 014 certification when filling English/Language Arts positions for grades 5-9. If you're evaluating whether this career path fits your goals, the ROI analysis on FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) certification and the salary guide go into more depth on outcomes.

Why Candidates Underestimate This Exam

Florida's 2020 Annual Administration and Technical Report showed a 46% pass rate on the multiple-choice section and a 53% pass rate on the written performance section - figures that place FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) among the harder middle-grades subject exams in the state's system. Several structural features of the test contribute to this:

• Two independently scored sections mean you must clear a content threshold and a performance-writing threshold separately
• The written task requires evaluating someone else's writing against a rubric rather than simply producing your own essay, which is a different skill than most candidates practice
• No reference materials are provided, so recall of grammar rules, literary terminology, and B.E.S.T. standards language must be automatic

A deeper look at what makes the test challenging, section by section, is available in the FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) difficulty guide, and the raw numbers are broken down further in the FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) pass rate article.

Preparing Around the Domain Weights

Because Domains 3 and 4 together make up nearly half the multiple-choice section, an efficient study plan allocates more time to Language Arts Content and Pedagogical Content for Teaching Language Arts than to the other four domains combined - without ignoring them, since each still contributes meaningfully to your final score.

This kind of scheduling is only useful if it's grounded in the actual domain breakdown rather than generic study advice - for a complete week-by-week plan built specifically around FTCE MGE 5-9 (014), see the FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) study guide. You can also review high-yield facts quickly using the FTCE MGE 5-9 (014) cheat sheet, and test your readiness with full-length practice questions on the main practice test site before your official test date.

Frequently Asked Questions