Academics at the Institute of Education have developed a new model for assessing A level performance which shows that girls who did well at GCSE went on to gain up to around two A-level points fewer than equivalent boys. Harvey Goldstein, who carried out the research with Sally Thomas, says that such information would be best used internally by institutions to adjust provision rather than to generate public league tables. The study, published today and carried out in conjunction with the DFEE, analysed the achievements of some 500,000 pupils taking GCSEs and A/AS levels.