Two action research projects were designed to examine the effectiveness of cultural training workshops as a means of increasing communication and interaction between black parents and educators in an urban school district. An important feature of the workshop was participation by black parents as part of the training team. It was assumed that cultural training and/or experience may produce differential effects on performance in hetero-cultural work groups depending on the leaders' interpersonal interaction style as reflected by their LPC score. Measures of the effectiveness of the training were derived from the groups action plan designed to meet the needs of black students in the educational setting. Study I provided the rationale for a more systematic examination of the effects of laboratory training, previous experience and LPC on group productivity in culturally heterogeneous groups. The results indicated that trained interracial groups performed better with high than low LPC leaders. The subjects in Study II were 58 teachers and 25 black parents from four elementary schools in an urban school district. Three independent variables (Training, LPC and Income) were manipulated in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design. The independent variable was the mean ratings by six independent, trained judges of action plans prepared by the work group. (Author/JM)