A central feature of the High Performance Computing Act of 1991 is the establishment of a National Research and Education Network (NREN). The level of access that teachers and teacher educators will need to benefit from the NREN and the types of network resources that are most useful for educators are explored, along with design issues that are crucial for implementing networking in the schools. Some of the factors that must be considered have been identified from the experience of the Unified Network for Informatics in Teacher Education (UNITE) networking project implemented in Kansas. The following desirable features are suggested by the UNITE experience: (1) realistic management of expectations; (2) establishing local links to wide-area networks; (3) wide-area network services, such as the INTERNET; (4) wide-area network interfaces for teacher education; (5) dynamic resources that are published for the community; and (6) attention to social and administrative considerations. Three figures illustrate the discussion. (Contains 14 references.) (SLD)