We report on the calculations of energy band gaps based on the semiempirical tight‐binding model for short‐period (ZnTe)m(ZnSe)nand (ZnS)m(ZnSe)nstrained‐layer superlattices (SLSs). During the calculation, much attention has been paid to the modeling of strain effect. It is found that (ZnTe)m(ZnSe)nsuperlattices grown on InAs, InP, and GaAs substrates show very different electronic properties from each other, which is consistent with experimental results now available. Assuming that the emission observed for (ZnTe)m(ZnSe)nSLS originates from intrinsic luminescence, we obtain an unstrained valence‐band offset of 1.136±0.1 eV for this superlattice. On the other hand, the band gap of (ZnS)m(ZnSe)nsuperlattice grown coherently on GaP is found to exhibit a much stronger structure dependence than that grown coherently on GaAs. The difference of energy gap between superlattice with equal monolayers (m=n) and the corresponding alloy with equal chalcogenide composition is also discussed.