MTTC tests are meant to ensure that each certified teacher has the necessary skills and subject area knowledge to serve in Michigan's schools. These tests are designed and implemented by the Michigan Department of Education.
Save all official MTTC score reports in a safe place because you may need them for employment or teacher certification in other states. If you need new score reports, additional copies may be ordered using these instructions.
In order to be certified, students must pass the MTTC subject area tests that correspond to the major and minor field(s) of study. These tests should not be taken until the final year of the program, but it is highly recommended that students pass their MTTC subject area test(s) before student teaching.
Students seeking elementary certification must also take the Elementary Education MTTC test #103. Do not take the new Lower or Upper Elementary tests 117-124. When registering for the Elementary Education test, report elementary education as a "major." Take the time to review the online study guide and test objectives. Spend extra time studying for these subareas, which have lower pass rates:
Candidates interested in teaching grades 9–12 special education in a Michigan public school may need to take additional MTTC tests later in consultation with the hiring school (mathematics, integrated science, and/or language arts).
If you have questions, contact Calvin's certification and assessment coordinator at (616) 526-6208 or certification@calvin.edu.
A small plane that crashed in Kentucky, killing both men inside of it, might have been stolen by the victims who were not licensed pilots, police said Thursday.
The Bellanca 17-30A came down in Henderson, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from Evansville, Indiana, killing the pair on board — Sanford, North Carolina, residents Barry A. Hill, 47, and George Tucker, 48, officials said.
Both men were not certified pilots and they didn't have permission to take that plane, Kentucky state police said.
The crash happened either late Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, a mere 75 yards off the runway at Henderson City-County Airport, officials said. The wreckage was found Wednesday at about 7:40 a.m. by an airport worker, authorities said.
The small airport closes at 11 p.m. each night, so no one knows exactly when the plane came down.
One of the men on board knows the plane's owner and at least one of them had taken some classes in piloting, Kentucky State Police Trooper Corey King told NBC News on Thursday.
King didn't immediately know which of the two men knew the plane's owner, or if that student was at the controls of the crashed Bellanca.
"Neither men have or ever had a certified, valid pilots license," King said. "Right now there are more questions than we have answers."
Last year in Seattle, a ground service agent at Seattle's Sea-Tac Airport stole a Horizon Air plane and performed air stunts before he crashed, officials said.
The plane later crashed in a wooded area on Ketron Island in rural Pierce County. No one on the ground was hurt in the crash that killed employee Richard Russell.
A House Democrat says the 14th Amendment bars Trump from becoming president again, if elected. But law experts say there are three key points to answer first.
WASHINGTON — In the hours after the unsealing of the newest federal charges against the former president, Google search data shows inquiries about "section 3 of the 14th Amendment" have skyrocketed. The 14th Amendment was also trending on Twitter following Donald Trump’s announcement that he would be running for president again in 2024, with people claiming the constitutional amendment could keep the former president from serving in office again.
House Democrat Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) also sent a letter to colleagues asking them to join him in sponsoring legislation that disqualifies Trump from the presidency because of the 14th Amendment. The letter was sent in full to VERIFY by Cicilline’s office.
Cicilline referenced Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, otherwise known as the “Insurrection Clause.” Cicilline says Trump “engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6 with the intention of overturning the lawful 2020 election results.” His legislation, he wrote, “would prevent Trump from holding public office again under the Fourteenth Amendment.”
VERIFY viewer David emailed us to ask if the 14th Amendment would keep Trump from office.
Does the insurrection clause in the 14th Amendment apply to Donald Trump?
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment dates back to the Civil War. The intention was to prevent the president from allowing former leaders of the Confederacy, who engaged in rebellion against the U.S., from holding office after they were granted presidential pardons.
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
In plain language, this generally means that someone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” can’t hold certain public offices.
But several legal experts argue this probably doesn’t apply to Trump. They point to three eligibility questions:
We’ll go through the answers to these questions individually.
Did Trump’s conduct amount to engaging in an insurrection?
Robert S. Peck, founder and president of the Center for Constitutional Litigation, told VERIFY in an email the issue “becomes whether Donald Trump engaged in the forbidden conduct.” It would be up to Congress to determine if he is guilty of participating in an insurrection.
If Congress did find Trump guilty of engaging in an insurrection, that finding could ultimately result in a disqualification from holding office. But constitutional law experts say Trump would likely file a lawsuit to challenge the validity of those accusations.
“At issue in the lawsuit would be whether his actions qualified as engaging in insurrection or rebellion or giving aid or comfort to enemies of the Constitution. Because we have no precedent for how a court would approach that issue, one would expect that the evidence gathered by the January 6th Committee and by the Justice Department would be aired in court with judges deciding whether it is sufficient to invoke the Fourteenth Amendment,” Peck said.
This is the first factor to consider – can it be proven that Trump actually did engage in an insurrection or rebellion?
Who does the section apply to in government?
Doron Kalir, clinical professor of law at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, told VERIFY as presently written and as he interprets it, the highest office this section would apply to is a senator. Kalir said the section says the rules apply to people in the following positions:
Kalir says as it’s interpreted, the president does not hold an official station within the U.S. military despite the title of “commander in chief” – that is not a rank within the U.S. military but gives the president authority to preside over some military operations. The president is also not considered a civilian.
“So there is very strong support to the hypothesis that Donald Trump is not included in the list of persons on whom this will apply,” Kalir said.
Is the president considered “an officer of the United States”?
Though “president” is never specified in the section, “officers of the United States” are.
“The question is whether the former president may be considered an officer of the United States for purposes of Section 3, Article 14. There is no certified answer by the United States Supreme Court for this question,” Kalir told VERIFY.
But, Kalir said the Supreme Court has spoken on this Topic before. In 2010, Chief Justice John Roberts issued an opinion in the case of the Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which spoke directly to whether the president is considered an officer.
Roberts said, “The people do not vote for the ‘officers of the United States.’ Rather, ‘officers of the United States’ are appointed exclusively pursuant to Article II, Section 2 procedures. It follows that the President, who is an elected official, is not an ‘officer of the United States.’”
In other words, only people in appointed positions are considered officers, Roberts said. Since the president is not appointed, he wouldn’t be considered an officer, according to the opinion.
It's important to note that there is no precedent as to whether this applies to the president or a former president. So this would need to be argued in court.
Kalir said all of these eligibility requirements would likely be answered well ahead of the November 2024 elections if Trump ends up on the ballot.
“I can assure you that every federal court that would look at it from a district court level through the Court of Appeals, and all the way up to the United States Supreme Court … In 2024, there will be clarity as to the constitutional eligibility of Donald Trump for running,” Kalir said. “There will be no doubt by the time 2024 is upon us - What is the eligibility according to the Constitution?”
The Supreme Court would likely have to rule on two key questions before the ‘insurrection clause’ could be invoked.
On Aug. 1, former President Donald Trump was indicted on felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
According to the indictment, Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, attempted obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
After the charges were announced – marking the third criminal case pending against Trump – people online claimed Trump could now be disqualified from serving as president again, under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is commonly known as the “insurrection clause.”
Does the “insurrection clause” of the 14th Amendment apply to Donald Trump?
Legal experts say it’s an untested grey area, because the clause has never been invoked for a president. The Supreme Court would likely have to rule on the case.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment dates back to the Civil War. The intent was to prevent former leaders of the Confederacy, who engaged in rebellion against the U.S., from holding office. It states:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
This means, generally, that elected officials who betray their oath and rebel against America are banned from ever holding public office again.
But there are two issues left unsettled by ambiguity in the text that would have to be ironed out before the clause could be used against Trump.
Can the “insurrection clause” be applied to presidents?
The clause lists classes of elected leaders for whom betrayal of their Constitutional oath can disqualify them from future office. That list includes members of Congress, state legislators, and “officer[s] of the United States.” It doesn’t explicitly mention the president.
The term “officer of the United States,” however, is not defined. Legal experts say it’s unlikely, but not impossible, that the term could be interpreted to include the president.
Doron Kalir, professor of law at Cleveland State University, says Chief Justice John Roberts commented on the question in a separate case in 2010.
In his majority opinion in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Roberts wrote: “The diffusion of power carries with it a diffusion of accountability. The people do not vote for the ‘officers of the United States.’”
Kalir says that could be interpreted to mean that elected officials, like the president, are by definition not counted as “officers.”
“There is very strong support to the hypothesis that Donald Trump is not included in the list of persons on whom this will apply,” Kalir said.
But because Roberts didn’t explicitly state the clause could not be applied to a president, the question would likely have to be specifically addressed by the courts.
“There is no certified answer by the United States Supreme Court for this question,” said Kalir.
Did Donald Trump engage in insurrection?
The 14th Amendment also does not define what it means to “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” And it provides no definitive process for how to decide whether someone did.
Historically, when the section has been used, proof of insurrection has come from a variety of sources: criminal convictions, civil action, and even acts of Congress.
The most recent successful use of the “insurrection clause” came in 2022, when a New Mexico state court judge ordered that a county commissioner be removed from office. The commissioner was convicted on charges he was involved in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and a nonprofit advocacy group filed a civil suit to try to remove him from office.
The latest indictment of Donald Trump does not include specific charges of insurrection.
“One could definitely make a reasonable case that Trump incited the January 6th insurrection, which would make him eligible for prosecution under that statute, but that is not one of the charges he is facing,” said Nicholas Creel, a law professor at Georgia State University.
However, the New Mexico conviction also did not contain specific insurrection charges, potentially leaving open the possibility that a judge could try to rule Trump ineligible for public office.
Robert S. Peck, founder and president of the Center for Constitutional Litigation, told VERIFY: “One would expect that the evidence gathered by the January 6th Committee and by the Justice Department would be aired in court with judges deciding whether it is sufficient to invoke the 14th Amendment.”
Such a decision, in either direction, would almost certainly be appealed and require a final ruling from the Supreme Court.
Even if the Supreme Court did rule against Trump and declare him ineligible for office, the “insurrection clause” provides an avenue for Congress to effectively overrule that decision and reinstate his eligibility with a two-thirds vote of each chamber.
