Attention and executive functions (EFs) play a critical role in academic skill development, including literacy and numeracy. Deficits in attention and EFs often accompany learning disorders, such as dyslexia and dyscalculia. Despite their well-established link, we lack a nuanced understanding of the specific neurobiological mechanisms that integrate the higher order cognitive processes of EFs (e.g., cognitive control) with the control of lower-level cognition related to domain-specific skills (e.g., processing numerical information). While attention and EFs have been identified as key factors in domain-specific cognition and learning, the focus on its domain-generality may hinder exploration of its domain-specific roots. Using the example of number processing, I detail a series of neuroimaging studies exploring how domain-specific mechanisms interact with domain-general processing. They suggest that a better understanding of the hierarchical nature of higher order control of lower-level processing is necessary to explain the relation between attention, EFs, and academic skills.