Bush Test Proposal for High Schoolers Joins Wider Trend

President Bush’s proposals to expand educational accountability from the elementary and middle grades to high schools would mean more testing for teenagers, individual student plans to promote achievement, and financial incentives for teachers to help students meet their goals.

Mr. Bush’s campaign proposals, unveiled at the Republican National Convention this month, are part of a much broader wave of improvement efforts focused on high schools. While in the past four years the push to improve public education has been targeted mainly at the lower grades, the debate in this election year appears to be shifting to high school.

Both the president and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, his Democratic opponent, are promoting high- school-related reforms and promising new money to implement them. And last week, the National Governors Association kicked off an initiative led by its chairman, Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia, to spur the states to enact systemic improvement...