Wiktionary
vb. (context idiomatic English) To prove satisfactory; to be successful or worthy of merit.
Wikipedia
Make the Grade is a children's game show that aired from October 2, 1989 through December 29, 1991 on Nickelodeon.
Usage examples of "make the grade".
Naturally, when the C-9 went off and the pressure went on, he didn't make the grade.
The Three Investigators had almost reached the inn when a truck came slowly up the vil- lage road, gears grinding as the driver shifted down to make the grade.
Lurton had come to New York ambitious to write, but discovered that he could not make the grade.
Wanted to be a big athlete when he went to State College, but he never could make the grade, so he takes it out this way.
So you got some off-planet factor to send your papers in for you, for the sake of the bounty he'll get from the colonel if you make the grade—.
So you got some off-planet factor to send your papers in for you, for the sake of the bounty he'll get from the colonel if you make the grade.
It could prove that despite a superb teacher and a devoted, efficient manager, the performer just didn't have it, just couldn't make the grade.
Didn't you s'pose I knew as well as any one that I got a low-comedy face and couldn't ever make the grade in a serious piece?
They agreed to let me take the training only if I made the physical conditioning cut, and then I was in only as long as I could make the grade.