In this chapter we present a reflection on research and policy in early grade mathematics (EGM) in the 2000–2010 decade in order to consider the ground at the end of that decade, and how it laid foundations for the much broader raft of EGM-focused research studies, development policies, and projects that emerged between 2010 and 2020. Using Ball’s writing on the ‘essential circuits’ of education (curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and the ‘hidden curriculum’), interlinked shifts were observed in all the circuits. In curriculum, there was a change from low to high levels of specification, amidst calls to reconsider specification in the face of gaps in teachers’ content knowledge and ongoing low attainment by learners. In pedagogy, attention to constructivist learner-centred approaches gave way, amidst evidence of gaps in awareness of progression and evaluation, to direct-instruction approaches linked to tighter specification in the curriculum. In assessment, there was evidence of rudimentary unit-counting approaches through the decade, and later, the introduction of national standardised tests. Increased data on how learners of EGM work came into view with these assessments. These changes reflected shifts in the hidden curriculum: the post-apartheid emphasis on using education to engender critical democracy reverted to traditional disciplinary goals in the face of ongoing demands for access to knowledge.