A study was conducted to explore the possibility of career education's impact upon a broad range of basic skills, including skill areas where standardized test scores are usually not available. Information was obtained through structured interviews with nineteen elementary (grades 1-5) teachers in seven schools in Rockford, Illinois, who were selected based upon their principals' rating of the extent to which they integrated career education concepts and activities into their classroom teaching. Results of the Career Education Activities Survey used in the study outlined the types and frequencies of activities occurring in the interviewees' classrooms, but did not consistently distinguish between the high and low involvement groups based upon principals' ratings. The study yielded a positive response to the question posed in its title by providing evidence that career education can have an observable impact on other basic skills as well as on reading and mathematics. The number of students who showed improvements in the language arts skills areas of writing, speaking, and listening is impressive. These are important skills which are not measured by the standardized achievement tests used in many previous studies, but which are clearly worthy of further investigation under more controlled conditions. Integration of career education into the curriculum has had a particularly beneficial effect in Rockford upon a number of slower learners and minority students. (TA)