The Board Self-Assessment Questionnaire (BSAQ) was developed to assess board performance in six areas that previous research has shown to characterize highly effective boards. Data from 623 board members in 34 nonprofit organizations were used to examine this instrument's reliability, validity, and sensitivity, including the relationship between board scores and selected indicators of the organization's financial performance. Results indicate that the BSAQ is a sound and useful tool for evaluating board performance.

A CCOUNTABILITY has become a major issue throughout the nonprofit sector. Numerous approaches to strengthening performance in this area exist, and many nonprofit boards expect their executives to account for use of their organizations' resources. However, few boards apply any such expectations to themselves. As a result, they send inconsistent messages to their staff, consumer, sponsors, and the public. Finding ways to strengthen board performance in this area is crucial to the health of every nonprofit organization.

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As child welfare agencies confront limited resources and increasing demands for demonstrating positive results from expenditures, growing attention has been directed to the potential benefits of training programs for foster parents. A number of such programs have been designed and tried by child welfare agencies, and numerous claims have been made regarding the purported beneficial effects and positive consequences of training programs for foster care. However, few empirical studies have been reported that support these claims. This article summarizes what has been found in the few controlled studies of the effects of foster parent training and reports on an evaluative research project that examined one such program. Implications of the limited knowledge m this area are then examined.

Can nonprofit boards conduct accurate and trustworthy evaluations of their own performance? Factors that limit trustee self-assessments include problems with available instruments as well as with trustees' critical abilities. Drawing upon previous research that identified six dimensions of board competencies, the author developed and field-tested a new instrument for use in board self-assessments. Information on the reliability and validity of this approach is presented, and implications are drawn for board efforts to monitor and appraise their performance.