Michael T. Nettles was a senior vice president and the Edmund W. Gordon chair of policy evaluation and research at ETS until 2023. He had a national reputation as a policy researcher on educational assessment, student performance, and achievement and educational equity. His publications reflected his broad interest in public policy, student, and faculty access, opportunity, achievement, and assessment at both the K–12 and postsecondary levels.
President Barack Obama appointed Nettles to the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. He was appointed by two U.S. Secretaries of Education to serve on the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), which oversees and develops policies for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). He also served for eight years on both the College Board of Trustees and the GRE® Board.
As of April 2021, Nettles served as chair of the Board of Trustees of the Southern Education Foundation (SEF), member of the Board of Trustees of the Peddie School, member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), and member of the Board of Directors of the Urban League of Middle Tennessee.
Nettles earned his bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Tennessee. He earned master’s degrees in political science and higher education and a Ph.D. in education at Iowa State University.