BOSTON - One year ago, it would have been thought an improbable scene: President Bush and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy staging a political lovefest in the gymnasium of America's oldest public school, to the exuberant cheers of 700 students, educators and Massachusetts political figures.

In the cradle of American liberty — and liberalism — the conservative Republican president and the Democratic Party's paleoliberal icon, praised each other lavishly yesterday and touted their work on the education-overhaul legislation that Mr. Bush signed into law yesterday.

True bipartisanship? Or mutual opportunism? Mere election-year accommodation?

It is hard to tell at this point, but it may be the last blush of bipartisanship before a year of tough political battles in Washington and in elections for House and Senate around the country.

But yesterday's appearance with Kennedy at Boston Latin School and at stops in Ohio and New Hampshire gave Mr. Bush a chance to show that he is interested in more than just war and terrorism, that he can work with Democrats on major programs and that he keeps his education campaign promises.

And it allowed Kennedy to boast that after almost 40 years in the Senate and despite being one of Washington's strongest liberals, he is as relevant as ever and still needed by the White House to pass major education legislation.

"You know, I told the folks at the Coffee Shop in Crawford, Texas, that Ted Kennedy was all right," said Mr. Bush. "They nearly fell out [of their chairs]."

After the laughter died down, Mr. Bush continued his praise. "But he is. I've come to admire him. He's a smart, capable senator. You want him on your side, I can tell you that."

Kennedy called the president "a great American" and praised his bipartisanship and work to win passage of the education bill.

Both are scions of dynastic New England families, although Mr. Bush takes pains to distance himself from his New Haven birth and Phillips Academy, Andover, Yale and Harvard educations. Mr. Bush, of course, is now loudly a Texan, but his family is New England WASP, Republican royalty; Mr. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush was a U.S. senator from Connecticut and his father, of course, was president.

The Kennedys are the country's most famous Irish Catholic Democratic clan. They are rooted in Boston but have spread out around the United States in recent years with forays into Rhode Island (U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy) and Maryland (Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who is expected to be a candidate for governor this year).

Shortly after becoming president last year, Mr. Bush invited Ted and Patrick Kennedy to the White House to watch the movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis, Thirteen Days. Then Mr. Bush renamed the Justice Department building for Robert Kennedy, who was attorney general in his brother John F. Kennedy's administration. Mr. Bush and his wife, Laura, attended the Special Olympics annual dinner, an organization long connected with the Kennedy family and founded by Ted Kennedy's sister, Eunice Shriver.

Yesterday was Mr. Bush's longest domestic political trip since Sept. 11. He recalled that his wife was scheduled to testify before Kennedy's committee that day.

"Before she'd go testify in front of his committee, obviously the evildoers hit America," said Mr. Bush. "I want to thank him publicly, in front of his home folks, for providing such comfort to Laura during an incredibly tough time."

Kennedy has a long history of working with conservative Republicans, such as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on major initiatives. Mr. Bush touts his record of getting along with Democrats when he was governor of Texas.

Neither man, of course, has changed his political spots, so future clashes are inevitable. But it was evident yesterday that they forged a personal relationship.

U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., U.S. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, and U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., also traveled with the president on the last leg of the trip that started in Ohio and made a stop in New Hampshire.

Kennedy, whose father and grandfather graduated from Boston Latin, presented Mr. Bush with a replica of the Declaration of Independence, which was signed by five Boston Latin graduates.

The $26.5-billion federal education plan is dubbed by the White House the "No Child Left Behind Act" — a phrase straight from Mr. Bush's 2000 campaign.

The measure, approved by Congress last month after a long stalemate, will increase funding for primary and secondary schools and give states and local districts more flexibility in spending that money. It also will require that all students in the third through eighth grades undergo yearly reading and math achievement tests.

Rather than signing the bill at the White House, Mr. Bush traveled to the district of one of its four main sponsors, Representative Boehner.

In a 17-minute speech in Boston, Mr. Bush tried to show that bipartisanship could extend to other issues.

That is not likely, especially as the months dwindle to the November elections. Mr. Bush and the GOP, on one side, and Democratic leaders in the Senate on the other, appear cemented into positions on most issues. The reappearance of a budget deficit has actually increased partisan sniping in Washington.

Democrats have supported Mr. Bush on terrorism and the war. But the Democrats who narrowly control the Senate and the White House remain seriously divided on health care, tax cuts, the economy, renewed budget deficits, and energy and environmental policies.

An unsubtle subtext was the president trying to isloate Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, who has been sharply critical of Mr. Bush's tax cut and spending priorities.

The measure Mr. Bush signed — even as he joked that he had not read the entire text and did not intend to — will increase federal aid to schools, targeting much of it to those with large numbers of low-income students. It triples spending on literacy programs to $1 billion a year.

It will require annual testing and prompt reporting of results to parents. In schools that fall below certain standards and fail to improve, parents will be allowed to use federal aid for after-school tutoring or to send their children to different public schools or charter schools, but not to private institutions, as Mr. Bush once proposed.

"Now, I've heard some say, well, tests, we're testing too much," said Mr. Bush. "If you don't like to take a test, too bad. Because we need to know, we need to know whether you're learning."

The students at Boston Latin laughed ruefully, but a half-dozen interviews showed that they were excited that the president and Kennedy had chosen their school for the event.

"It is really exciting," said Frankline Ho, a freshman. "It is like a once-in-a-lifetime thing to to be this close to the president."

Congressman Edward Markey, dean of Massachusetts' all-Democratic congressional delegation, said Kennedy deserves credit, but said the bipartisanship on the education bill will not translate to other domestic issues.

"The Republican tax cut is outrageous," Markey said in a brief interview. "It great to talk about education, but how are you going to pay for it with the deficits the tax cut is causing?"