I’m not familiar with the two authors, but note that you have included an excerpt about the declining PISA performance of Australian students, which some experts believe may be due, at least in part, to the under recognition and poor support for gifted students in comprehensive schools. In some states, the number of public selective schools has increased as the main means to cater for gifted kids, but there are a number of problems with this approach as there are few such schools in rural areas, there are no catchment boundaries (many students travel hours each day to attend the school where they were offered a place on the basis of a competitive exam) and a large proportion of successful candidates have been heavily coached for the entrance exam.

A new ‘High potential and gifted education’ policy (https://education.nsw.gov.au/teachi...gh-potential-and-gifted-education-policy) was announced in 2019, which will ‘promote engagement and challenge for every student, regardless of background, in every school across intellectual, creative, social-emotional and physical domains.’ ‘It supports every student to achieve their educational potential, through talent development opportunities and differentiated teaching and learning practices to ensure that their specific learning and wellbeing needs are met.’ The intents sound very well meaning - will be interesting to see how they enact their policy.