The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education is a U.S. Department of Education initiative begun in 1994 to assist families with children's learning by developing national and local family-school-community collaborations. This paper discusses the rationale for the Partnership, including research on family, school, and community collaborations; the nature and status of the Partnership; and how research is linked to its ongoing activities. In discussing the rationale for the Partnership, the paper points to research showing that family involvement is a critical link to high-quality education, and then discusses obstacles to involvement, the school's role, the community's role, and new national laws. The paper then provides an overview of Partnership structure and activities, including Partnership promises, which are pledges of action developed by each steering committee based on a statement of common purpose; conferences; publications, including the "America Goes Back to School" activity kit, various booklets, "Preparing Your Child for College, which is a resource book for parents, and "Community Update," a monthly bulletin of the Department of Education that covers recent developments in its major programs. Also discussed is the Read*Write*Now! Program to combat the decline over the summer in students' reading skills. The paper concludes with an overview of ongoing research meant to provide baseline data and to track the Partnership's progress. The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education is an instructive example of relationships between public policy and educational research. (Contains 25 references.) (LPP)