make the grade

Probably from a railway train climbing a length of track sloping uphill (a grade).

• "Near-synonym: fit the bill"
• "In 1916 the famed Van Sweringen brothers bought their first railroad—the Nickel Plate. . . . This year, as usual, the tarnished Nickel Plate cannot make the grade. In first seven months it lost $2,003,779."
• "I read the news today, oh boy About a lucky man who made the grade And though the news was rather sad Well, I just had to laugh"
• "In the end, only eight plucky contestants made the grade."

• cut it
• cut the mustard
• make the cut
• measure up
• pass muster
• fit the bill

• up to par
• up to snuff