This paper examines the effect of content coverage on mathematics achievement and studies its relationship to eighth grade tracking. Previous analyses have shown tracking to be quite prevalent at eighth grade unlike much of the rest of the world. The U.S. practices both between- and within-school tracking, leading to very different content coverage for different students. Without judging the merits of the instructional or other theories which led to this practice, the results presented in this paper explore the consequences of such a policy. Using the "international grade placement" (IGP) index the paper found statistically significant differences in content coverage across the different types of courses, especially between algebra and the other two course types. The results presented in this paper challenge the wisdom of this practice. Why should different students study different content, either as a result of being sorted within a school into different content tracks or by the de facto result of different non-tracked schools deciding what the one type of course (e.g., algebra versus regular mathematics) they will offer for all their students? The latter case also effectively tracks students into different content coverage but for students attending different schools. The effect is the same--different content coverage for different students. (Contains 2 figures, 13 tables, 3 footnotes, and 13 endnotes.)