In 2012, several dozen schools of the Moscow region participated in a natural experiment related to the territorial expansion of the capital and the formation of the so-called “New Moscow”. During the reform, these schools were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Department of Education and gained access to the Moscow educational standard and a new level of funding. The consequences of the reform for the New Moscow school system, as well as for the educational opportunities and results of students of these schools, have not yet been studied. Since such reforms associated with geopolitical changes represent a special case of a natural experiment, the study of the case of New Moscow is of particular scientific interest due to the nature of such a reform allowing one to obtain evidence-based assessments of its effectiveness [Hillman, 2017]. 

For example, Le Grand Pari(s), or the “Greater Paris” project, launched in 2010 at the initiative of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, set similar to the New Moscow project tasks - expanding transport infrastructure, building new housing, and developing business clusters [Enright, 2016].  However, this reform led to the growth of socio-economic segregation in education  [Desjardins, 2018]. Schools with the highest educational results of students were concentrated in the territory of "Old" Paris, while educational institutions of the joined territories showed lower results - even after controlling the socio-economic status and gender of students [Oberti, Savina, 2019].

Our research was carried out within the framework of Pierre Bourdieu's sociospatial concept [Bourdeau, 1987; Bourdieu et al., 1999]. Capital borders expansion is seen as a change, first of all, in the symbolic status of the territory of New Moscow. The uniqueness of this study lies in the fact that it allows us to study the socio-economic consequences for the education system from a change in the symbolic status of space since the reform to expand the boundaries of the capital implies a change, first of all, in the symbolic status of space. For the schools of New Moscow, the acquisition of capital status entailed, first of all, a change in the founder, as well as access to higher funding. The scale of regional socio-economic and educational inequality in Russia makes this transition even more noticeable, which makes this case unique at the international level as well.

Using quasi-experimental methods (Interrupted Time Series and Difference-in-Differences), it was shown that in the short term, the acquisition of the capital status had a positive impact on the New Moscow schools’ level of funding, infrastructure, and access to ICT, and also increased the educational opportunities of students. The effects of the reform on educational outcomes turned out to be insignificant, except for an increase in the proportion of 11th-grade graduates who received certificates with honors. The long-term effects for schools in New Moscow were also analyzed in comparison with Old Moscow and the Moscow region. Using the Monte Carlo simulation method with Markov chain models, an alternative scenario was developed, which allowed us to assess the possible achievements of New Moscow schools in a situation without reform. The use of quasi-experimental methods is one of the strengths of this work since it allows us to talk about the consequences of the reform in a causal manner. Unfortunately, the mosaic nature and fragmentation of the data available in the public domain do not allow us to illustrate the case of New Moscow with the maximum degree of detail. However, even taking into account this limitation, our results may be of interest not only to researchers but also directly to teachers and parents of students, as well as managers and politicians in the field of education.

This study shows how the change in the symbolic status of the territory of New Moscow led to changes in the school education system. But although the symbolic status of the educational institutions of "Old" and New Moscow turned out to be the same, the capital, financial and infrastructural differences between them remained, and the final equalization did not happen. Despite the impetus for development given by the reform to the schools of the annexed territories, they still lag behind "Old" Moscow. Based on the results of our study, we can draw conclusions only about the short term, however, the results of the annual rating of the contribution of educational organizations to quality education by the Department of Education and Science of the Moscow City also speak about the continuing educational inequality between the schools of "Old" and New Moscow. This introduces new aspects to the discussion about the relationship between the symbolic and socio-economic status of space and raises the question of the need for a deeper study of the heterogeneity of territories. Our results underscore the importance of further research into the New Moscow case. By analogy with the Greater Paris case, it can be assumed that the reform to expand the boundaries of the capital was reflected in the level of socio-economic segregation of territories, which, in turn, can explain the remaining differences between the schools of Old and New Moscow. However, this assumption can be tested only on individual data, which requires new studies.

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