In the past two decades, Thornton Academy's faculty and programs were recognized, funded, or honored by local, state, and national groups and foundations. Given below are highlights of awards and recognitions received in the last decade.

• In December 2001, Headmaster Carl J. Stasio, Jr. was voted president-elect of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).
  
  
• Thornton Academy was selected to recieve a three-year, $50,000 a year Comprehensive School Reform Grant in the spring of 2001.
  
  
• Associate Head of School Mary Nasse was named 2001 Educational Leader of the Year by the Maine Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
  
  
• Headmaster Carl Stasio named Maine Arts Education Administrator
  
  
• English teacher Hope Hall was a finalist for Maine Teacher of the Year in 2000
  
  
• Thornton was designated a Maine School of Excellence.
  
  
• In 1999, first-year English and French teacher Cheri Gowen was named Maine's Sallie Mae First Class Teacher, a national award honoring outstanding first-year teachers. In 1995, first-year math teacher Kevin Kezal received this award.
  
  
• Two national Teachers of the Year in the 1990s are faculty. In 1996, English teacher Christopher Queally, who also co-advises drama, was named one of 36 outstanding Teachers of the Year by the American Teacher Awards. In 1994, visual arts teacher Raymond Lund was named one of 36 Outstanding Teachers of the Year by the American Teacher Awards, then further selected as the Visual Arts Teacher of the Year from among three finalists nationally. American Teacher Awards recipients are selected by representatives from fifty national education associations, and the awards presentation is broadcast on The Disney Channel.
  
  
• Three finalists for Maine Teacher of the Year in the 1990s teach at Thornton. Latin teacher Sally Cody was named one of eight finalists for Maine Teacher of the Year 1999. English teacher William Ouellette, who also co-advises drama, was a finalist for Maine Teacher of the Year 1997. And math department co-chair Deborah Knapp was a finalist for Maine Teacher of the Year 1996.
  
  
• Also in 1999, Latin teacher Sally Cody was awarded The Matthew I. Wiencke Teaching Award by the Classical Association of New England. In the same year, English teacher Christopher Queally was chosen by the American Councils for International Education to participate in the United States-Newly Independent States Awards for Excellence in Teaching.
  
  
• The Mary Weymouth Hyde Library received the 1998 James C. MacCampbell Award for Exemplary School Library Programs from the Maine State Board of Education. The Maine Educational Media Association named Information & Curriculum Specialist David Anderson the 1997-98 Library Media Specialist of the Year.
  
  
• Thornton was one of only two Maine schools funded by the Hitachi Foundation from 1992 to 1997 to model the integration of math and science.
  
  
• In 1993 Thornton was one of 15 Maine schools (and the only school in York County) chosen to be funded through a three year grant from the Pew Charitable Trust as models of school reform.