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The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has recognized Thomas P. Carpenter for a lifetime of accomplishment in math education. Carpenter has directed several major WCER projects over the years and is a professor in the UW-Madison School of Education.

NCTM awarded Carpenter its 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics Education in April during its annual meeting in Philadelphia.

A member of the UW-Madison faculty since 1975, Carpenter initially focused his research on the development of children's mathematical thinking. In the early 1980s, he began studying how teachers incorporate knowledge about students' mathematical thinking into the classroom. His work provided early evidence that teachers' professional development aimed at the way children think about mathematics could result in gains in student achievement.

The research led to the formation of a professional development program called Cognitively Guided Instruction, which has been implemented and studied across the nation. Carpenter is extending his work to study students' thinking, classroom instruction and the development of algebraic thinking in elementary grades.