The report assesses the impact of career awareness-oriented dramatic play procedures in elementary school children. A sample of 90 second graders from North Carolina (66 from open classrooms and 24 from self-contained classrooms), who participated in a dramatic play program in which they constructed a model community in the classroom, was compared with a control group of 33 students who participated in a traditional program of career education (field trips, movies, and sound tapes). The results of the pre- and posttests, which were cross analyzed by ability level and socioeconomic level and presented in tabular form, suggest that dramatic play was more effective than traditional methods both in the self-contained and the open classroom setting. Greater gains were produced in factual knowledge, occupational awareness, and productive thinking in relation to social and community organization in both disadvantaged and more advantaged students. Evidence did not suggest however, that the dramatic play program had a differential effect on behavior patterns in the classroom or on achievement in reading, mathematics, or language. Two appendixes provide the test instruments administered to the students and selected parents' responses to a questionnaire about the program. (JR)