HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Student testing in Texas public schools has undergone a lot of changes in recent years. Several bills have been filed in the 89th legislative session that began Tuesday to revise or eliminate various testing requirements. Three times a year, the youngest students in Texas public schools are given educational assessments. Children in pre-K 3 and pre-K 4 are tested according to guidelines mandated by the Texas Education Agency. Tests are administered to make sure the youngest students are meeting their educational targets and to let parents know if any early interventions need to happen. Bertha Perea, Director of the Early Childhood Academy explained, “They test on phonemic awareness. They test on letter knowledge and vocabulary. There’s mathematics. There’s social and emotional components, social studies, and science.” For a subject like Social Studies, pre-K students aren't expected to know the three branches of government, or who their Senator is. Questions are more focused on recognizing the country they live in, and a basic understanding of the democratic process. “So, they need to identify our U.S. flag. Another one is, point to an example of voting, and it’ll be like a teacher, and they’re tallying up which snack to eat for the day,” said Moises Vargas, Early Literacy Coach at Early Childhood Academy. The Harlingen Consolidated School District began its testing period Monday for pre-K students, and the testing period lasts four weeks. Perea said the TEA mandates roughly when the testing window will open, but districts have some flexibility as to the exact dates they're scheduled. Tests are administered on either a desktop computer or tablet and conducted one-on-one to get accurate data. “On the iPad version, a lot of teachers opt for that one because the students can be the ones to click on the answer choice that they’re picking," Vargas said, "And then the desktop one, the teacher would be the one clicking on the answer that the student chooses.” Campuses then use the data to see where students might be struggling. Perea said educators can then craft learning strategies to address any problem areas. “If the data was low in math, then we make sure that in the hallways we hear counting. If it was rhyming, then we make sure that the rhyming is addressed through that. So, we use every moment, every pocket of time to address the needs of the students,” Perea said. Results are also shared with parents, to see where at-home instruction could be helpful. Perea said campuses typically hold parent-teacher conferences to track each child's progress. For parents looking to improve their child's performance, Perea said the simplest, and cheapest way to help, was by using everyday experiences as teaching moments. “Whether it’s cooking, laundry ... you can pair socks, you can count socks," Perea said. "You can count shirts while you’re folding them. You can count blocks. It’s really the basic activities that we as adults take for granted.”