Learning progressions have become an important construct in educational research, in part because of their ability to inform the design of coherent standards, curricula, assessments, and instruction. In this paper, I discuss how a learning progressions approach has guided our development of an early algebra innovation for the elementary grades and provide examples of how this approach can help challenge a settled mathematics learning status quo about the kind of algebra students can learn, when they can learn it, and how all students can be successful. Empirically derived learning progressions are an important part of designing early algebra innovations that can open new curricular pathways for teaching and learning algebra, creating accessible and effective avenues of learning for all students. [For the complete proceedings, see ED630210.]