Hull's schools have "significant work" to do to raise themselves off the bottom of the national GCSE league table, its education authority says. Showing the way is a group of authorities that have made dramatic gains, year on year. The biggest improvement was in the London borough of Hackney - still in a lowly position but up 8.1 percentage points.
Portsmouth was up exactly eight points, Gateshead 7.8 and Stoke-on-Trent 7.4.
At the top of the table of the main education authorities (LEAs) in England is Kingston upon Thames, where 67% of pupils achieved at least five good grades.
The biggest falls were in Bury and in Blackburn with Darwen - down 3.3 and 3.2 percentage points.
'Truly excellent'
Hackney, delighted with its progress, also said eight of its secondary schools were in the top 5% of schools, nationally, on the value added progress measure.
Education in the borough is being run by The Learning Trust, whose chief executive, Alan Wood, attributed the success to the efforts of head teachers and the commitment of teachers.
"The whole community of Hackney can take pride in our secondary schools as Hackney pupils have achieved the best GCSE results in ever.
"These are truly excellent improvements and demonstrate that all young people in Hackney can find good academic success in our schools.
"This puts to rest the lie that secondary schools in Hackney don't perform."
In Hull there was a three-point improvement from 2002, but still only 31.9% of students achieved the better grades, putting it bottom of the table.
Helen McMullen, the corporate director of learning and culture, said: "Right across the city we recognise there is still significant work to be undertaken to ensure that the achievement levels are much higher".
The table below shows the percentage of students getting five or more good GCSE/GNVQ grades, the points per student at A/AS-level, and the average percentage of half day sessions lost through unauthorised absence.
Click the name of any LEA for a complete list of its schools in our main league tables.
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These are truly excellent improvements and demonstrate that all young people in Hackney can find good academic success 
