A Regional Socio-Geographic Atlas of Secondary Education: Can the “Power of the Territory” Be Surmounted?

Abstract

A socio-geographic atlas of secondary education in Kaliningrad Oblast has been made after testing new instruments designed for measuring educational inequality at regional and local levels, its reasons and consequences, and the factors affecting its manifestation. The data for the atlas was obtained from open databases on education quality, information on the region’s attractiveness as a location for real estate investments provided by real estate agents, and the results of measuring the distance of schools from the hubs of social
wellbeing. The main assumption at the base of the study is that the influence of environment (factors external to school) on education quality dominates the importance of internal processes. A comparative analysis of the resulting maps of education and territory  quality has revealed not only individual resilient schools and schools that require support but also the low quality zones and socio-geographic anomalies of academic resilience. The article offers methods for studying and overcoming the “curse of the territory” and educational inequality at regional and local levels.