FALLS CHURCH, Va. – President Bush began a second-term drive yesterday that he said would improve the American high school, urging the same testing and consequences he used to shake up earlier grades.

In his first major education speech since winning re-election, Mr. Bush touted his plan to demand state reading and math tests in grades three through 11. That would broaden his No Child Left Behind Act, which requires one year of state testing during grades 10 to 12.

“Testing in high schools will make sure that our children are employable for the jobs of the 21st century,” Mr. Bush said at JEB Stuart High School. “Testing will allow teachers to improve their classes. Testing will enable schools to track. Testing will make sure that the diploma is not merely a sign of endurance, but the mark of a young person ready to succeed.”

Improving high schools has suddenly become a talked-about topic, with calls of alarm from the president, the nation’s governors, employers, and college professors. The reason: Many high school students aren’t ready for college or work after they graduate, if they get that far.

“The attention is welcome,” said Kati Haycock, director of The Education Trust, an advocate for poor and minority children. “Other countries are cleaning our clocks at the secondary level, and we need to get serious about it.”

Mr. Bush headed into the Washington suburbs to speak at JEB Stuart High, a school known for big gains in achievement despite high poverty, student mobility, and language diversity.

The president reiterated ideas he presented during his fall campaign, when he signaled that he would shift focus from elementary and middle grades to high school. They include bonuses for teachers whose students perform well, individual performance plans for students entering high school, and more college aid for students who take a rigorous curriculum.

He also proposed extra support for high school students still struggling to read well. “It sounds odd, doesn’t it, for the president to stand up and say, ‘We need to focus on reading in high school,'” Mr. Bush said. “But that’s the state of affairs.”

A flurry of reports have raised doubts about the value of the high school diploma, with graduation exams that don’t test 12th-grade knowledge, employers who can’t find workers with basic grammar skills, and colleges that must place many students in remedial classes.

Mr. Bush said his high school plan, a mix of consolidated programs and new money, would cost $1.5 billion. It may be squeezed fast, with a record deficit limiting domestic spending.

Congress, for example, took Mr. Bush’s $100 million request for his “Striving Readers” program and cut it to $25 million this year. Mr. Bush now wants $200 million for the program.

“Many of these ideas are the right thing to do, and they’re the right issues – we’re probably late getting to them,” said the director of the independent Center on Education Policy, Patricia Sullivan. “But if we’re going down this path, we have to have the resources.”

Mr. Bush won bipartisan support for No Child Left Behind, the law that reshaped education by demanding that schools help children regardless of race, wealth, or background. Democrats say Bush hasn’t provided enough money for the law, making them wary to join him this time round.

“The president will meet stiff resistance in Congress and in the country if he adds new requirements for high schools while he continues to refuse full funding,” said Rep. George Miller of California, the top Democrat on the House education committee. The lead Democrat on the Senate education committee, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, warned of the same result.

Federal spending on programs covered under No Child Left Behind has increased 40% since Mr. Bush took office, from $17.38 billion to $24.35 billion. But spending went up only 1.7% this year, about the same rate of increase the entire Education Department received.

Under the law, schools that receive Title I poverty aid and fail to make progress face mounting penalties, such as ensuring students can transfer elsewhere. Holding high schools accountable the same way may be difficult, because a small number get federal poverty aid.

After his speech, Mr. Bush ducked into a government class with first lady Laura Bush and spoke to the students, who had just been learning about his predecessor – William Clinton.