Thomas P. Carpenter is best known in the United States and abroad for his contributions to education research. Initially his work focused on issues associated with children's learning of measure, but in the early 1980s, Carpenter shifted his emphasis to helping teachers incorporate knowledge about students' mathematical thinking into classroom instruction. At the time of this writing, he is working on issues related to the development of algebraic thinking in the elementary grades.
From 1975 to 1987 he served on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) item development team and helped structure the early NAEP assessments. He also was a member of NCTM's Task Force on the Interpretation of NAEP Results during the 1970s and 1980 and made certain that the articles accurately reflected the NAEP data and would be understood by different audiences. Carpenter was also editor of NCTM's Journal for Research in Mathematics Education from 1988 to 1992.
He served as director of the National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and Science from 1999 through March 2004, and in the fall of 2003, he assumed the role of director of the consortium known as DiME/CLT, for Diversity in Mathematics Education, Center for Learning and Teaching.
Thomas P. Carpenter died on August 6, 2018.