The scintillation index of a Gaussian beam and radially polarized beams in turbulent atmosphere is experimentally investigated. The scintillation index of a Gaussian beam and a completely coherent radially polarized beam increases with increasing propagation distance from 0 to 400m. The influence of the coherence of partially coherent radially polarized beam on the scintillation is studied. The result shows that the scintillation index of a partially coherent radially polarized beam can be smaller than that of a completely coherent beam.