The Nomogram: A Decision-Making Tool for Practitioners Using Multitiered Systems of Support

Although schools administer many assessments, there is a lack of consensus regarding the best way to combine different pieces of information to facilitate evidence-based decision-making, particularly within multitiered systems of support. Although largely unheard of in education, the nomogram is an evidence-based assessment tool that is widely used in other fields and allows users to incorporate data about multiple sources of risk to estimate the probability of an outcome. This article (a) provides a primer and conceptual overview of the nomogram, (b) provides a tutorial and the materials needed to use the nomogram for evidence-based assessment, (c) describes analyses to compare the decision-making accuracy of the nomogram with that of other methods using a large sample of data (N = 1,461) from an urban school district, and (d) illustrates use of the nomogram with a hypothetical case.