Human systems engineering education seeks to infuse principles of applied psychology, cognitive science, human factors, and user-centered design into the engineering curriculum to help students understand the people they are engineering for (e.g., clients) and their own roles as engineers. This paper outlines a conceptual qualitative framework for formative assessment of students’ incorporation of human systems engineering concepts in their projects and documentation. The framework examines potential conceptual dimensions along with applications, sources, and depth of such knowledge, which we argue can begin to evaluate students’ work and inform iterative efforts to improve human-centered engineering education programs. Example applications of the framework based on several data sets are discussed.