Researchers, organizations, companies, non-profits, practitioners, and to some extent, the public, are clamoring for massive reform in developmental coursework in higher education (American Association of Community Colleges, 2018; Edgecombe et al., 2014; Complete College America, 2012). One such reform is the push for integrated reading and writing (IRW) courses. The pressure for redesign of developmental reading and writing programs is intense, but other transformations in higher education are also shaping the future of developmental education. For example, as a result of joining Achieving the Dream's core program in 2019, the College of Southern Maryland (CSM) made a commitment to shift the majority of courses to a compressed 7-week format by fall term of 2021. After 18 months of implementation, CSM's new IRW curriculum in compressed terms appears to serve students about as well as the former multi-course, multi-level program. Even though the former program was robust, vigorous, and thorough, IRW in compressed terms appears to be equally effective in preparing students for success in credit-level courses, while saving them 15-30 weeks of time and up to 9 credits of cost, depending on where they were placed in the old system.