Reading researchers should be encouraged to include assessments of practical significance in all their journal articles, reviews of research, technical reports, and dissertations. The tendency has been to base the integration of data entirely on the results of tests for the significance of differences, overlooking the assessment of practical significance. A review of the research studies reported in the 1977-79 yearbooks of the National Reading Conference shows that few discussions included assessments about the strength of relationships or practical significance. This failure to assess the strength of relationships not only limits the information value of individual studies or experiments, but also constrains opportunities to synthesize empirical findings and to advance theories about learning to read and reading instruction. When "highly significant" ANOVA test results are accompanied by "extremely low" values of practical significance, researchers should realize that they "know something for sure about very little." When high values of practical significance repeatedly appear for the same instructional variables, the potential value of these variables in the formulation of reading theory should be recognized and exploited. (RL)