Key lawmakers Tuesday praised a move by the Bush administration to require states to set uniform standards for measuring high school graduation rates.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings outlined that requirement and a number of other administrative changes designed to beef up implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, which Congress has failed to reauthorize this year.

Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, praised the changes but criticized congressional Democrats for failing to complete a rewrite of the law, a hallmark achievement of President Bush’s first term.

“We have learned a great deal in the six years since NCLB was enacted. As policymakers, we have an obligation to take seriously those lessons and translate them into reforms,” said McKeon.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., one of the authors of the law, said the changes announced by Spellings “include important improvements” for implementing the education law.

But Kennedy and other Democrats continued to criticize what he called Bush’s “tin cup education budget” and urged the administration to support more funding for programs to help elementary and secondary students meet national standards.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., said, “A uniform standard for calculating dropout rates is an important first step. But we need bolder steps to make sure that Americans can compete. We should mandate a year of post-high school education for every American, while providing the necessary financial help. And we should institute a national policy, like West Virginia has done, to suspend the driver’s licenses of teens who drop out.

“By employing both carrots and sticks, we can lower the dropout rate and keep more kids in school,” he said.