108 Advanced Research & Innovation in Quality Assurance Education Reform in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Tony McAleavy and Alex Elwick CfBT Education Trust, 60 Queens Road, Reading, RG1 7XG, United Kingdom. Correspondence to Alex Elwick: aelwick@cfbt.com, 0118 902 1681 Abstract Following a strong performance in PISA 2012 Vietnam caught the world’s attention. This research project sought to assess the state of Vietnam’s education system and identify an explanation for the country’s recent success. Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was chosen as a case study city in order to explore the education reform journey in greater detail. The evidence suggests that this success was not just a one-off, and that the education system in the country has been steadily improving for over a decade, particularly in major cities such as HCMC. The national and local government implemented a reform programme based on a comprehensive theory of change using a small number of linked key policy levers: targeted investment, a changed curriculum and pedagogy, and a focus on teacher quality. Alongside this, there has been an emphasis on communications and the creation of a social coalition for change. Keywords Change theory, leadership, workforce, pedagogy, communication, engagement 1. Introduction Vietnam is the easternmost country on the Indochina peninsula in South-East Asia and, with around 93 million inhabitants; it is the world’s 13th most populous country. Its largest city, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) is located in the south of the country and has a population of almost eight million. Vietnam stunned the world (World Bank 2013) when, in the 2012 international PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) tests, it was ranked 17 th out of the 65 participating countries (OECD 2014). Vietnam’s performance in the PISA tests was surprising given its status as a lower/middle-income country (World Bank 2015a ) and the fact it had the lowest GDP per capita of any of the countries participating (OECD 2013a).