The Elementary School Journal has served researchers, teacher educators, and practitioners in the elementary and middle school education for over one hundred years. ESJ publishes peer-reviewed articles dealing with both education theory and research and their implications for teaching practice. In addition, ESJ presents articles that relate the latest research in child development, cognitive psychology, and sociology to school learning and teaching.

ESJ prefers to publish original studies that contain data about school and classroom processes in elementary or middle schools while occasionally publishing integrative research reviews and in-depth conceptual analyses of schooling.