The second Pittsburgh conference on the theory and practice of beginning reading, held in May 1976, is evalauted in this paper by pointing out some of the "critical incidents" that occurred at the conference and that indicated the types of interactions that must take place between reading theory and practice in the future. The paper suggests that by putting researchers in the classroom and by making theorists out of classroom teachers each group can appreciate the difficulties inherent in the other group's work. The interaction of such a situation will increase the volume of research--inadequate theories will be quickly discarded--and hasten the application of good theories into effective practice. (RL)