This study aims to increase our knowledge about how the main ideas in a national educational project concerning mathematics are implemented into ordinary activities. The original model included having a leadership form in common that involves local politicians, municipality administration, school leaders and teachers; creating joint routines; andadopting a common perspective that places high expectations on all pupils. In contrast to the original project, which was only for compulsory school, the selected local organizer engaged with preschool, compulsory school and upper-secondary school. The idea of having a common theme running throughout all school forms functioned for preschool and compulsory school but was hampered by the variety of choices of programs in upper-secondary school. The common perspective hat high expectations should be placed on all pupils was accepted, but it was difficult to reach a common understanding of the concept, and there were continuous discussions of what it meant in practice. Results from this exploratory study suggest that the local organizers created organizational ownership in different ways. However, a challenge was posed by the conceptual, didactic ownership of placing high expectations on the pupils. There were no problems with grasping the general idea, but during discussion it was difficult to reach a useful and relevant joint understanding of the concept. When a didactic perspective is included in a national change initiative, personnel in the education system need to translate the national perception, if any, into local terms.